List of Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl characters

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This is a list of characters from the Japanese manga series Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl, written by Satoru Akahori and illustrated by Yukimaru Katsura; original character design is by Sukune Inugami and the school uniform design was created by the company Cospa.^[1] The manga was published in Japan by MediaWorks in the seinen manga magazine Dengeki Daioh, and concluded with thirty-five chapters collected in five bound volumes. An English language version of the manga is distributed in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment, which released the five volumes between December 2006 and March 2008.^[2] An anime adaptation of the series composed of twelve episodes plus an original video animation episode aired on Japanese television between January 11, 2006 and March 29, 2006. Since the animated version only covers events from the first fourteen chapters or so, is self-contained, and had an original ending, there exist significant differences in characterization between the manga and anime incarnations of the characters. A single light novel written by Mako Komao and illustrated by Yukimaru Katsura was released in January 2006 by MediaWorks; the light novel carries its own set of differences in the story when compared to the manga and anime versions. There is also a visual novel based on the series developed by Vridge, published by Marvelous Interactive;^[3] the game contains three new characters not featured in any other Kashimashi media type.^[4]

The main story revolves around a normal, albeit effeminate seventeen-year-old high school boy named Hazumu Osaragi who is pressured by his friends Tomari Kurusu and Asuta Soro to confess his love to his friend Yasuna Kamiizumi, however, she turns him down. Hazumu takes this hard and climbs the nearby Mt. Kashima to try to forget what happened, but while on the mountain is seriously injured when an alien spacecraft crash lands on him. In order to rectify this, the alien revives Hazumu, but inadvertently turns him into a female, right down to the DNA level. Afterwards, the plot often revolves around whether Hazumu's new female body changes or does not change her relationships with her friends and loved ones. Throughout the series, a love triangle emerges between the three female main characters of Hazumu, Yasuna, and Tomari, Hazumu's childhood friend. This mainly consists of the characters unsure whether to act on their feelings due to them being the same sex. Another conflict arises between Yasuna and Tomari who fight for Hazumu's affection while she is still unable to choose between them. The drama that ensues between the three is often quite melodramatic.

Contents 1 Main characters 1.1 Hazumu Osaragi 1.2 Yasuna Kamiizumi 1.3 Tomari Kurusu 2 Supporting characters 2.1 Ayuki Mari 2.2 Asuta Soro 2.3 Namiko Tsuki 2.4 Hitoshi Sora 2.5 Jan Pu 2.6 Hazumu's parents 3 Characterization differences between media 4 References

[edit] Main characters

[edit] Hazumu Osaragi

Hazumu Osaragi (大佛 はずむ, Osaragi Hazumu?)
Hazumu as a girl.
First appearance	Chapter 1 (manga) Episode 1 (anime)
Voiced by	Kana Ueda
Profile
Age	17 (first appearance)[5][6] 18 (manga conclusion)[7]
Gender	Male (chapter 1; episode 1) Female (onwards)
Known relatives	Toru Osaragi (father) Kahoru Osaragi (mother)

Hazumu is a student, born male, at Kashima high school in the fictional setting of Kashima ward in Tokyo, Japan near Mt. Kashima, and is the main character in the series.^[8] As a child, Hazumu grew up with his close friend Tomari who would often protect him from bullies that would tease him and make him cry.^[9] Since his mother had always wanted a daughter instead of son,^[5] she often dressed him up in young girl's clothes, saying that gender discrimination is not a good thing.^[10] When he was still very young, Hazumu told Tomari that some day he will be her bride, though Tomari had to quickly correct him that boys get to be grooms, and girls are the brides; Hazumu quickly corrects himself and asserts to Tomari that someday he will be her groom.^[11] As Hazumu grew up, he came to love floriculture and other disciplines of horticulture. In high school, Hazumu joins the gardening club, but despite his vast knowledge is not the club leader.^[12] When he entered high school, there was only a small flowerbed on the school's roof,^[13] but by the next school year, the roof was covered in plants, including trees, a vegetable garden, and flowers.

While still in his first year of high school, Hazumu was on Mt. Kashima when he fell down a hill onto one of his classmates, Yasuna Kamiizumi.^[8] This was the first time he had spoken with her, and during this exchange Yasuna told him how much he looked like a girl, much to his dismay, even if he himself said he got that a lot.^[8] After this, Hazumu and Yasuna started hanging out more, and Hazumu gradually fell in love with her. One day early in his second year of high school, Hazumu is pressured by his friends Tomari and Asuta to confess to Yasuna, which he goes along with. However, Yasuna rejects him, which hurts Hazumu heavily.^[8] He goes up to Mt. Kashima to be around the plants he loves so much, but while up there an alien spacecraft crash-lands on him, seriously injuring him. In order to rectify this mishap, and in accordance with his own laws, the alien resurrects Hazumu, but in the process unexpectedly changes his gender to be completely female,^[8] right down to the DNA level.^[5]

The alien initially says this was a mistake on his part, but he later explains that Hazumu was meant to die that day when the spacecraft hit him, which was when his "life grain" count was meant to go to zero.^[14] This "life grain" count is predetermined by a specific fictional gene in the human genome which determines exactly how long an organism will live.^[14] Unaware of this at the time, the alien resurrected Hazumu, but the machine capable of such a feat searched for a different "life grain" gene, which when activated regenerated Hazumu into a female, since his "life grain" count as a male had already been used up.^[14] However, this was only a temporary measure, since around seven or eight months after the transformation Hazumu's new "life grain" count will once again be depleted, and she will die.^[14] The only way to prolong Hazumu's life is for someone to donate their "life grains" over to Hazumu, effectively sharing the rest of their life as such.^[14] Hazumu later gets an update on her impending death, and learns that she is to die at midnight at the conclusion of her school's culture festival.^[15] Six hours before the intended time, Hazumu is on the school roof with Yasuna and Tomari when the fence behind Hazumu breaks, causing her to fall off the roof. Tomari jumps after her and while they are falling, Hitoshi transfers "life grains" from Tomari to Hazumu, saving both their lives.^[15] After waking up, Hazumu confesses that her love to Tomari, effectively choosing Tomari over Yasuna.^[16]

Shortly after Hazumu's transformation, she is unsure on how to live life as a girl and is initially very clueless about typical female matters.^[5][17] Hazumu is also confused about how different people treat her after the change, though Hazumu resigns herself to live life as a girl.^[5] Despite Hazumu's physical change, there is not much change in her personality, as she still scares very easily, and has always been rather effusive, expressive and quite sensitive,^[9] which makes her fit well as a Japanese girl after the change. She has always been quite indecisive,^[18] which causes problems in the course of her changing relationship with both Yasuna and Tomari. Hazumu ends up becoming more feminine as time goes on, which is shown through her actions, mannerisms and personality. One exception to this, however, is that she never gets over referring to herself using the term boku (僕, boku^?), meaning "I", which is usually only used by males in Japan. Hazumu is very selfless, thinking of others before herself and worries about her friends greatly.^[19] Yasuna has observed that Hazumu only smiles greatest when she is surrounded by her many loved ones.^[20] Hazumu's name carries double meanings; Hazumu is from either the noun hazumi (弾み, hazumi^?) meaning "bounce", or the verb hazumu (弾む, hazumu^?) meaning "to become lively", and Osaragi means "Big Buddha".

[edit] Yasuna Kamiizumi

Yasuna Kamiizumi (神泉 やす菜, Kamiizumi Yasuna?)
First appearance	Chapter 1 (manga) Episode 1 (anime)
Voiced by	Yui Horie
Profile
Age	17[6]
Gender	Female
Known relatives	Unnamed mother Unnamed father

Yasuna is a student at Kashima high school and has been Hazumu's classmate since their first year of high school. Ever since she was born,^[21] Yasuna has had a unique affliction which makes her incapable of seeing males, and instead to her males are covered in a gray, hazy blur, which makes it extremely difficult for her to tell one male apart from another except through the sound of their voice.^[21] Due to this, she was never able to get along well with others; on top of not being able to see the boys in her class at school, the girls who would normally interact with them were different compared to Yasuna, which built up a divide between her and everyone else.^[22] She ended up staying alone for years, and she thought she did not mind it; she did not intend to befriend anyone anyway. However, when she stumbled across Hazumu one day in her first year of high school, she was shocked to find that she could see most of him clearly, though his face was still a blur.^[22] From that point on, Yasuna wanted to learn more about Hazumu and gradually fell in love with him. However, even when Hazumu confessed his love to her in their second year of high school, she rejected him since he was still a boy, and she was afraid that he too would one day disappear from her vision.^[21] After Hazumu's transformation into a girl, Yasuna wastes no time trying to rectify her mistake and confesses her love to Hazumu finally, but Hazumu is very confused by this and does not know what to do, especially since her physical change.^[5]

She has been practicing the flute for many years and is very good at it, so naturally she joins her school's music ensemble when she enters high school. The music room when she practices playing is positioned near the rooftop where Hazumu maintains the garden for her own club, and Yasuna would love to look up at the garden.^[13] Hazumu, before her change, would also often listen to Yasuna playing her flute, and when he went to check who it was that was playing such beautiful music, he was astonished to see it was Yasuna, who generally appeared cold in class at the time. Her playing was so good that it managed to move Hazumu to tears, and was the first time music had done that to him.^[23] Hazumu later tells Yasuna that her music has become a lot warmer than it had once been around the time when they first met.^[24] Back before Yasuna knew Hazumu, she applied to a musical conservatory in New York City, but was declined entry. Later, her uncle, who is a well-known musician in New York, resubmits her application and she is accepted this time.^[25] However, Yasuna and her mother take a plane to New York and Yasuna formally declines the offer into the conservatory because that would separate her from Hazumu.^[25] Yasuna has no misgivings about this whatsoever, and thinks she will be able to make her dream of becoming a professional flute player come true some other way in the future.^[25]

While initially cold and distant from others, Yasuna gradually changes and becomes much easier to approach.^[24][15] Her friends in the musical ensemble tell her this, and ask her if she changed due to someone she likes, and Yasuna affirms this.^[24] Yasuna herself tells Tomari how when she fell in love with Hazumu that she started to truly see the other people around her. The first person she noticed was Tomari, who to Yasuna sparkled and due to her open personality, Yasuna wished she could be more like her.^[26] Yasuna has shown herself to be very devoted to Hazumu, and in a conversation to Tomari, Yasuna tells her that she wants Hazumu all to herself.^[20] She wants Hazumu, who is more precious to her than anything or anyone, to smile her brightest smile when just around her, instead of when Hazumu normally smiles brightest when she is surrounded by her many loved ones.^[20] After she learns of Hazumu's impending death, she does not break down, but instead remains cheerful when around Hazumu who does not want her friends to be sad. After Hazumu chooses Tomari over her, Yasuna is saddened, but is able to cope with the loss. A month afterwards, Yasuna thinks to herself that she loves Hazumu due to how she can put her all into loving someone, even if that someone is not her. Yasuna also was able to accept Hazumu's decision and hoped that Hazumu will stay happy with Tomari.^[27] Yasuna's name carries double meanings; Yasuna is from either the noun yasumi (休み, yasumi^?) meaning "rest", or the verb yasumu (休む, yasumu^?) meaning "to rest", and Kamiizumi means "god's fountain", from Shinto.

[edit] Tomari Kurusu

Tomari Kurusu (来栖 とまり, Kurusu Tomari?)
First appearance	Chapter 1 (manga) Episode 1 (anime)
Voiced by	Yukari Tamura
Profile
Age	17 (anime)[6] 18 (manga)[28]
Gender	Female
Known relatives	Unnamed mother[18] Unnamed younger brother[18][28]

Tomari is a student at Kashima high school and is a classmate of Hazumu's in their second year. Tomari is Hazumu's childhood friend, so the two know a lot about each other and have many memories from the past. Hazumu would often get bullied as a child, and Tomari would have to come to his rescue, saying that she would protect him forever.^[9] As a child, Hazumu told her that he would some day become her bride, though Tomari had to correct him, saying that girls get to be brides and boys get to be grooms; Hazumu corrects himself, saying he will someday be her groom. Tomari remembers this "promise" for many years, and is moved close to tears when she discovers that Hazumu has not forgotten about it either.^[11] Tomari is one of Hazumu's friends that pressured him to confess to Yasuna, and after he goes missing that day, Tomari becomes very worried about him.^[8] After Hazumu's initial transformation, Tomari does not know what to do. Ayuki observes that Tomari liked Hazumu more as a boy, due to the fact that she has had affections for Hazumu for some time.^[5][29] At first, she is very annoyed that everyone around Hazumu is trying to make her more feminine, but ultimately realizes that while Hazumu has changes physically, her personality is still the same, therefore still the same person inside.^[9] Tomari tries to even protect Hazumu from the emotional stress Yasuna caused her by rejecting Hazumu by trying to tell Yasuna to back off for the time being, but after Hazumu says she still wants to be Yasuna's friend, Tomari does not push any further.^[17] Tomari knows Yasuna is much more feminine, prim, proper, lovely, and nicer than she is, but in spite of this, Tomari tells Hazumu that she is not going to lose to Yasuna in the end.^[30]

Tomari is very athletic and competitive, so in high school she joined the track and field club. During the annual sports day at school, Tomari becomes very pumped about winning, even going so far as to tells her teammates to win even if it kills them, and that if they lose that they will regret it.^[31] Tomari participates in the 400 meter co-ed relay and despite falling behind slightly, ends up coming out on top in the end and she wins not only the race but enough points to put her red team in first place. Tomari tells Yasuna after the race that she never gives up, no matter what kind of fight it is.^[31] In contrast to Hazumu and Yasuna who are not athletes and rather feminine, Tomari is a tomboy who does not often partake in traditionally feminine things such as clothing, shopping, or cosmetics. In her entire life, Tomari never wore a yukata during the annual summer festival, and has to borrow on old one from her mother when she finally does wear one during the summer festival shortly after Hazumu's transformation.^[18] Another change in Tomari occurs the day when she and Hazumu plan to go to the aquarium amusement park alone together; Tomari puts on lip gloss, which Yasuna notices, and affirms that it does not look weird on her when asked.^[32] At least two of Tomari's female friends on the track team consider her very masculine, and like her cool character; one of these friends even says that if Tomari were a boy that she would have a huge crush on her.^[13] Tomari gets annoyed at these comments, and is embarrassed when Ayuki recounts how Tomari once received a love letter from another girl, though Tomari tries to explain that it was a fan letter.^[13]

Unlike Yasuna, Tomari has a lot of difficulty when it comes to her affection towards Hazumu. When Tomari catches Hazumu and Yasuna kissing for the first time in their classroom after school, she not only very shocked, but merely tries to stay out of their way for a few days following.^[11] Hazumu tries to find out why she is avoiding her, and goes to Tomari directly to apologize to her for anything she could have done to make Tomari angry at her. After a short emotional exchange, Hazumu tells her that Yasuna and Tomari both mean a lot to her, and Tomari eventually gives in to her affections, finally being honest with herself that she loves Hazumu very much.^[11] After Tomari learns of Hazumu's impending death, she becomes severely distressed, even spending her time hidden away in her room wrapped in her bed covers.^[24] However, Tomari still continues to go to school, no matter how jaded she has become due to the thought of losing Hazumu. Tomari tries to act normal during this time, but constantly gets agitated at even the slightest inference into Hazumu's mortality. Ayuki tries to help her during this time, but realizes that Tomari has not been able to move further, unlike Yasuna.^[33] After Tomari finds out that her upcoming track meet is in December, and thus beyond Hazumu's one-month time limit, and the fact that Hazumu has been worried about her, Tomari breaks down completely and stays home for a few days.^[33] When confronted by receiving a gift from Hazumu, Tomari tries to not accept it, though eventually gives in; she runs to a nearby park after school and falls asleep with Hazumu's present — running shoes — unwrapped. When she wakes up, Tomari finds Hazumu next to her, and shortly after breaks down in tears in Hazumu's arms, wishing she would not have to die.^[34] While out with everyone having fun on Mt. Kashima not long after, Yasuna reassures Tomari that there is nothing wrong with Tomari, and that since she loves Hazumu, it is perfectly natural to feel in pain when looking at Hazumu.^[35] After Hazumu chooses Tomari, Tomari promises Hazumu that she will never let her die, and that she will always protect her.^[16] A month after they have become a couple, Tomari still is embarrassed about people seeing her kiss Hazumu in public.^[27] Tomari's name carries double meanings; Tomari is from the verb tomaru (止まる, tomaru^?) meaning "to remain", and Kurusu is from cruz, the Spanish for "cross".

[edit] Supporting characters

[edit] Ayuki Mari

Ayuki Mari (摩利 あゆき, Mari Ayuki?)
First appearance	Chapter 1 (manga) Episode 1 (anime)
Voiced by	Masumi Asano
Profile
Age	17[6]
Gender	Female
Known relatives	Unnamed mother[36]

Ayuki is a student at Kashima high school and is a classmate of Hazumu's in their second year. As a child, she used to love watching caterpillars leave their chrysalises and turn into butterflies.^[36] However, she never once thought that she herself would want to be in a similar position — changing into something else — so she merely just enjoyed watching the transformation before her. That by itself is enough for her, she recounts to Hazumu.^[36] Using this as a metaphor, Ayuki tries to explain to Hazumu that watching her loved one from afar is its own variety of love, though Ayuki never explicitly states just who she admires from a distance.^[36] Ayuki is good friends with Tomari, and Ayuki will often give her, and others, advice and help in regards to relationships.^{[8][24][32][33]} Keeping with her stance on watching from afar, Ayuki continuously observes the ongoing development of the love triangle between Hazumu, Yasuna, and Tomari.^[23][33]

Ayuki is interested in the sciences, though most specifically, biological sciences. During the test of courage event, she even held up in the biology laboratory until Hazumu found her, which is when she talks to Hazumu about just watching her loved one from afar.^[36] During Hitoshi Sora's first biology lesson at school, Ayuki commented that he leads a most intriguing class, referring to the genetically modified sunflowers he engineered which also turned out to be rather harmful.^[37] During sports day, Ayuki gets on the executive committee which is responsible for organizing the event, but in effect, members of this committee do not participate in many events themselves.^[31] Ayuki organizes the obstacle course for the day, but designs the course in a crocodile-filled swamp-like setting complete with a snake pit with pythons, and a spider-net covered in tarantulas.^[31] Hitoshi compliments on her work for the course, sighting it as the highlight for the entire day. In the end, no one was able to complete the course, and Ayuki thinks that everyone that failed is pathetic.^[31]

When Hitoshi tells Hazumu friends that she only has one month left to live, Ayuki reveals that she knew he was the space alien this entire time, due to his vast knowledge of science.^[14] Unlike her usual self which is calm and generally quiet, Ayuki gets very upset by this news, and pleads Hitoshi to do something to keep Hazumu alive since he once before brought her back from the dead, eventually leading to Ayuki starting to cry. Hitoshi corrects her that his species is not omnipotent and while his people may be more advanced technologically, they are still inferior as a race compared to humans.^[14] After Ayuki learns that Hitoshi will remain on Earth for the next one-hundred years, she expresses interest in becoming a human collaborator in his observations of love.^[27] Ayuki's name carries a double meaning; her name is derived from the Virgin Mary — Mari Ayuki.

[edit] Asuta Soro

Asuta Soro (曽呂 明日太, Soro Asuta?)
First appearance	Chapter 1 (manga) Episode 1 (anime)
Voiced by	Daisuke Ono
Profile
Age	17[6]
Gender	Male

Asuta is a student at Kashima high school and is a classmate of Hazumu's in their second year. Asuta and Hazumu have known each other long enough to consider each other best friends, and Asuta is one of his friends that pressures him into confessing his love for Yasuna. Asuta tells Hazumu that if he is a man that he should act like one and go ask out the girl he likes with no hesitation, despite Hazumu being reluctant to go along with it. Asuta is a good deal more masculine than Hazumu ever was, and thinking like a guy, he had planned that even if Yasuna did turn Hazumu down that he would be able to take Hazumu out into town and have fun, in effect helping him dull the pain of getting rejected.^[8] However, when Hazumu unexpectedly goes missing, he does not know where to find him. Tomari has to forcibly remind Asuta that Hazumu is more sensitive than most guys, so he probably went to look at flowers up on Mt. Kashima.^[8]

After Hazumu's transformation into a girl, Asuta suddenly finds his good friend Hazumu very attractive, and cannot help himself when he starts thinking about Hazumu in a sexual way.^{[5][17][18][29][37]} During the time when Hazumu and her friends go to the beach, Asuta continuously tries to remind himself that even though Hazumu's body has changed, the person is still the same, and as her best friend, he should not be thinking about her in a sexual way.^[29] While alone together, Asuta tries to tell Hazumu that he may be falling in love with her, but are interrupted by Namiko falling off a cliff near them, which makes Hazumu scream in surprise and worry for Namiko's well being. Both Yasuna and Tomari hear her scream, and when they arrive Tomari jumps to conclusions and beats up Asuta on the spot.^[29] Hazumu remains oblivious to the fact throughout the series that Asuta has been often thinking about her in a sexual way. Asuta continues to have fantasies about having Hazumu as a girlfriend as well.^{[20][26][36][38]} Overtime, Asuta realizes that Hazumu and him gradually grow apart from each other, or are at least not as close as they once had been when Hazumu was a boy.^[7] He does find it excellent that his friend is now a very attractive girl, but only wants to continue being Hazumu's friend and nothing more, constantly beating himself up for having impure thoughts about Hazumu.^[26] A month after Hazumu and Tomari become a couple, Asuta has met a girl with short dark hair who, according to Yasuna and Ayuki, looks quite similar to Hazumu. Asuta has already traded e-mail addresses with her, and has a photo of her on his cell phone.^[27] Asuta's name carries a double meaning; his name is derived from Zoroaster.

Asuta is the subject of two special bonus chapters in the manga series which serve as a humorous distraction from the otherwise drama-filled series, and have no connection to the series' plot whatsoever. The second special chapter in volume three of the manga tells of Hazumu holding a pajama party with just her female friends, and Asuta tries multiple times to crash the party in order to find out what occurs at a no-males-allowed well-known get together among girls. Asuta is eventually teleported onto Hazumu's roof where he slips down onto the balcony next to Hazumu's room, where he finds the girls merely doing their homework. Ayuki calls the police and he gets taken away for trespassing.^[38] The fourth special chapter in volume four of the manga centers around Asuta in three different situations. The first part has Hazumu being shrunken down to palm-sized and is eventually found by Asuta who takes her back to his house where he gives her a mug filled with hot water so she can take a bath. However, there is a time-limit on this effect, so when it wears off, Hazumu reverts to normal size in Asuta's room completely naked and wet, and right afterwards Tomari and Ayuki walk in with regards to school homework. Seeing the scene before her, Tomari nearly kills Asuta, and drags Hazumu back home.^[39] The second part has Asuta being transported to an alternative universe where Hazumu is his girlfriend. Hazumu finds Asuta and is all over him, but when he turns around to face her in a kiss, Hazumu instantly realizes that he is not her Asuta, who just happens to be coming up to Hazumu at this time. Hazumu runs her boyfriend recounting how she hugged a total stranger.^[39] The third part has Asuta once again thinking about Hazumu in a sexual way in class, and realizes reluctantly that Hazumu is everything he wants in a girlfriend. When asked by Namiko what he would prefer for an ideal partner to be like, he yells to the class that he prefers boys better, but he was merely caught up in the thought that he preferred Hazumu as a friend more when he was a boy. This causes a misunderstanding throughout the school, thinking Asuta to be homosexual, much to his dismay. Hazumu finds Asuta and hopes that he will find a nice boyfriend in the future.^[39]

[edit] Namiko Tsuki

Namiko Tsuki (月 並子, Tsuki Namiko?)
First appearance	Chapter 1 (manga) Episode 1 (anime)
Voiced by	Yuko Mizutani
Profile
Age	35 (first appearance)[6] 36 (manga conclusion)[27]
Gender	Female

Namiko is a teacher of English at Kashima high school, and is the homeroom teacher of Hazumu's class. As she often proclaims, she has lived for thirty-five years and has never had a single boyfriend. This has enabled her to devote most of her time and energy into her students at school,^[8] but she is still lonely.^[20] When Hitoshi starts to work as her coworker at school, she becomes instantly infatuated by him,^[37] and goes to extreme lengths to show her devotion and mania towards her precious Hitoshi Sora. On one occasion, Hitoshi asks Namiko to brave Hotakadake in order to retrieve a pennant from the mountain peak, which she accomplishes.^[34] Namiko's attraction towards Hitoshi borders on obsession as she hangs large pictures of him on her walls at her home, and constantly is thinking or dreaming about him.^[20] She continuously shouts loud expressions of her desire to have Hitoshi as her boyfriend and future husband, and even fantasizes about this coming true on multiple occasions.^{[18][19][29][31][34]} However, since Hitoshi's species cannot express emotions, the attraction is entirely one-sided.

A running gag throughout the series is that Namiko is extremely clumsy, and will very often fall in holes,^[5][8][13] fall out of buildings,^[9] or off of cliffs.^[29] While the students in her class are initially concerned about her many falls,^[9][13] they become jaded by how often it occurs and pay not attention to her potentially getting injured later on in the series. Namiko remains a tough individual though and always recovers after her falls no matter how severe they may be. Namiko's name carries a double meaning; her name is derived from the adjective tsukinami (月並, tsukinami^?) meaning "commonplace" or "clichéd".

[edit] Hitoshi Sora

Hitoshi Sora (宇宙 仁, Sora Hitoshi?)
First appearance	Chapter 1 (manga) Episode 1 (anime)
Voiced by	Keiji Fujiwara
Profile
Gender	Male
Species	Extraterrestrial

Hitoshi is the space alien responsible for transforming Hazumu from male to female. He arrived to Earth via his spaceship run by an artificial intelligence named Jan Pu, but crash lands on the surface where Hazumu is, killing him instantly. Hitoshi rectifies this by regenerating Hazumu, but unexpectedly changes his physical sex in the process.^[8] This is a mystery to Hitoshi for some time until he is finally able to confirm that Hazumu's "life grain" count is slowly dissipating, and by the time Hitoshi confirms this, Hazumu only has one month left to live.^[31] Hitoshi originally came to Earth as a cultural anthropologist and to study the emotions of the human race since his species has long-since given up any emotion at all. Hitoshi recounts that at the peak of his people's civilization, they had discovered the means to destroy all life in the entire universe instantly, so in order to prevent this from ever happening, his people chose to discard their emotions.^[21] However, even after becoming a calm, logical race where emotional clashes such as violence and war disappeared completely, his people also started to lose their sexual urges in order to propagate his species further. In their current situation, if something is not done soon, his entire species will soon become extinct, which is why he is on Earth to find a way to save his species.^[21] He arrives at the conclusion that his species needs to remember how to love each other in order to survive, so love becomes a focus of his research. In order to observe humans more closely, along with Hazumu and her ongoing relationship with Yasuna and Tomari, Hitoshi starts working at Hazumu's school as a biology teacher, and inadvertently becomes the target of Namiko's extreme affections.^[37] The alien picked the name Hitoshi Sora due to its double meaning; his name written in kanji is (宇宙 仁, Sora Hitoshi^?) which literally means "space-man".

Hitoshi has an utter lack of human customs and way of life, and due to this unfamiliarity, his comments often provide the series with an outside perspective on love, such as when he asks Hazumu if there is any formal restrictions on Earth that prevent two people of the same sex from falling in love with each other.^[37] More than anything else, Hitoshi is constantly butting in on Hazumu's love affairs, which greatly annoys her to no end as the series progresses. With no real regard for the emotions of humans, he does things as he wishes and does not think of possibly upsetting Hazumu through his intrusions into her life. This includes him taking it upon himself to move into Hazumu's closet in her room for the time being due to observational purposes, and does not ask her or her parents if this would be okay before hand.^[5] The following morning after he moves in, Hitoshi, and the artificial intelligence of his space ship encased in a female android's body modeled after Hazumu's own new body named Jan Pu, are warmly welcomed by Hazumu's parents.^[17] Throughout the series, his views on other subjects such as friendly competition or war provide a somewhat existentialist point of view.^[26][31] Hitoshi continuously follows Hazumu around during outings with his friends in order to further observe her and her friends.^{[18][20][26][29][31][35][36]} Due to his intervention in saving Hazumu's life twice, and Tomari's once, Hitoshi was charged and sentenced by his home planet to remain on Earth for the next one-hundred years and continue his observations of love.^[27] While it is not stated how long Hitoshi's race lives in comparison to humans, he does not give any indication that he will die in this time.^[27]

[edit] Jan Pu

Jan Pu (ジャン・プウ, Jan Pū?)
First appearance	Chapter 1 (manga) Episode 1 (anime)
Voiced by	Ryōko Shintani
Profile
Gender	Female
Species	Artificial intelligence

Jan Pu is an artificial intelligence owned by Hitoshi Sora as the automatic pilot of his spaceship. Her first appearance has her in disembodied form as the navigator of Hitoshi's ship and she is responsible for the crash landing on Earth and for killing Hazumu.^[8] When Hitoshi comes to Earth to live in Hazumu's house, he constructs a gynoid modeled after Hazumu's own new female body, so Jan Pu looks about the same age as Hazumu, and their faces bear a striking resemblance.^[5] Jan Pu herself considers her running over Hazumu as her first kiss, and wants to someday marry Hazumu.^[37] Jan Pu has the unique ability of levitation, and is able to bend light around her so others cannot see her.^[9] Other than technically being an artificial being, she generally acts like a human child due to being enthusiastic about meeting new people and possessing little to no social skills for a girl who looks to be the age of seventeen. At home, Hazumu and Jan Pu have been known to take baths together and they sleep together in the same bed every night.^[9] Additionally, Jan Pu can eat and finds curry to be delicious.^[20] Hazumu's parents take an instant liking to Jan Pu since now they have two girls to dress up and take pictures of. When Jan Pu meets Hazumu's friends for the first time, she is introduced as Hazumu's cousin.^[20] Jan Pu loves Hazumu very much, and Hitoshi even had to give her a definition for "love" once she came to Earth in order to describe the emotion she was feeling for Hazumu.^[21] She addresses Hazumu as onee-nii-sama (お姉兄さま, onee-nii-sama^? literally meaning "older sister-brother"), and often says the nonsensical word "pū" during exclamations of emotion. Jan Pu's name carries a double meaning; her name is derived from the noun janpu (ジャンプ, janpu^?) meaning "jump".

Jan Pu is the subject of the second bonus special chapter at the end of volume two of the manga.^[12] This chapters tells of Jan Pu who does not want Hazumu to go to school during summer vacation, but she has no choice in the matter. Hitoshi warns Jan Pu that when residing within an alien star-system, neither a space ship or a sentient part thereof can take any action without the express permission of its master, in this case Hitoshi.^[12] However, Jan Pu disobeys him, and follows Hazumu to school where she observes her during her daily activities, but she wants to play with Hazumu too. When Hazumu nearly drowns in the school pool, Jan Pu uses her command over Hitoshi's space ship to save Hazumu.^[12] When Hitoshi discovers that Jan Pu disobeyed him, he informs her that he must punish her, but Hazumu tries to stick up for her since she saved her life. This leads Hitoshi to force both Hazumu and Jan Pu to participate in a swimsuit photo shoot while Hitoshi, Hazumu's father, and Asuta take the pictures.^[12]

[edit] Hazumu's parents

Toru Osaragi (大佛 徹, Osaragi Tōru?) Kahoru Osaragi (大佛 かほる, Osaragi Kaoru?)
First appearance	Chapter 1 (manga) Episode 1 (anime)
Voiced by	Makoto Yasumura (Toru) Yuko Nagashima (Kahoru)
Profile
Gender	Male (Toru), Female (Kahoru)
Known relatives	Hazumu Osaragi (child)

Hazumu's parents, her father Toru, and her mother Kahoru, are almost always shown together throughout the series. When Hazumu goes missing after getting rejected from Yasuna, both of Hazumu's parents are completely distraught, and do not know what to do.^[8] After Hazumu's transformation, both parents become overjoyed to have a daughter in place of a son which is shown through their eccentricities.^[5] Toru works as a magazine photographer and loves to take pictures of Hazumu any chance he gets.^[13] Often this is after his wife has already dressed Hazumu in some feminine garment. Additionally, Hazumu's father repeatedly attempts to take a bath with Hazumu, but is always stopped by his wife.^[5][21] Kahoru loves to buy feminine clothes for Hazumu to wear and buys these clothes without consulting Hazumu herself, though regardless she finds herself wearing them anyway. Directly after Hazumu turned into a girl, her mother even went ahead and bought her a female school uniform to wear from now on.^[5] Hazumu becomes annoyed by her parents' new behaviors toward her, and finds trying on her new clothes very tiring.^[13][35] When Hazumu bakes cookies for the first time, Kahoru loves it, but Toru wolfs down most of the cookies for himself.^[40]

[edit] Characterization differences between media

Since the anime adaptation of the series covers events from the first fourteen manga chapters — albeit with plot points altered and featuring an original ending which attempts to tie up as many loose plot points as possible — and that the manga was still ongoing at the time the anime first aired in Japan, there are numerous differences, both subtle and profound, in characterization between the two media.

After Hazumu's change into a girl, she is shown in the anime as completely clueless about basic matters related to being a girl such as feminine modesty, how she walks, talks, and handles herself throughout the day. In the manga, this is shown to a much lesser extent and Hazumu is able to adjust to living like a girl much quicker and with less direct interference from others than in the anime.^[5][9] In the anime, Tomari tries to teach Hazumu everything there is about being a girl, but in the manga she is very reluctant to the fact that Hazumu's sex has changed and tries to help her as little as possible in becoming more feminine.^[5][9][17] Hazumu's personality in the manga is more direct than her anime counterpart, such as when expressing outward annoyance towards her parents' eccentric behaviors, and Hitoshi's awkwardly straightforward interferences in her love life.^{[13][18][20][21][36]} Also, during the day at the beach in the manga version, Hazumu seeks out Asuta when she is being hit on by two guys and asserts that Asuta is her boyfriend, but in the anime Asuta takes the role of Hazumu's protector and asserts that she is his girlfriend.^[29][41]

Yasuna's character changes between the manga and anime in regard to her level of devotion towards Hazumu and how much she is willing to do to be with her, especially after Hazumu's transformation into a girl. The first instance of this is when Yasuna confesses her love to Hazumu the first day she returns to school as a girl, but in the anime she does not confess to Hazumu after the change and in fact starts to avoid her.^[5][42][43] Similarly, during the time when Hazumu is shopping for her first bra, Yasuna shows up in the manga version and helps Hazumu into a very feminine bra, but in the anime it is Tomari who helps her try on her first bra.^[17][42] In episode three of the anime, Yasuna continues to avoid Hazumu despite still longing for her, and it takes an effort by Hazumu to restore their previous friendship,^[43] but Yasuna never once tries to avoid Hazumu in the manga; on the contrary, Yasuna tries to be around Hazumu as much as possible in the manga version. During the time when Yasuna holds a curry party in the manga, which is combined with the beach trip in episode seven of the anime, Yasuna tells Tomari that she wants all of Hazumu to herself and she invited the others to the party so that she could see Hazumu's brightest smile.^[20] However, during the same scene in the anime, Yasuna tells Tomari that she invited Tomari and the others so that she could learn more about Hazumu and her likes and dislikes.^[41]

Yasuna's unique affliction to be unable to see males is changed from the manga to the anime. While in the manga Yasuna says she has never once been able to see males completely clearly (Hazumu being the only slight exception),^[21] Yasuna explains in the anime that she at one time was able to see males, but one day she could not see her father anymore after he got angry with her as a child, and it escalated from there to encompass all males.^[44] Additionally, in the eleventh anime episode, Yasuna becomes unable to see females as well, though this is later rectified in episode twelve when Yasuna is completely healed and is able to see both males and females.^[45] In the anime, Yasuna is shown to be terrified of males,^[46] even those in her own class,^[44] which are clear signs of her suffering from androphobia, but in the manga she merely pays very little attention to males around her, even when spoken to directly, or otherwise ignores males completely.^[37] In the anime, Yasuna is shown at one time accidentally ignoring her father at the dinner table,^[44] but the only time Yasuna is shown speaking to her father in the manga has her smiling to him, presumably feeling at ease around her father despite being unable to see him.^[25]

[edit] References